Pioneer: Grixis Phoenix - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Since Lost Caverns of Ixalan came out, the Pioneer has been graced with major changes, such as the birth of Amalia Combo, the banning of Geological Appraiser, the new interaction between Inti, Seneschal of the Sun and Smuggler's Copter, among others.

In the midst of these new developments, a new variant of Arclight Phoenix decks emerged in the first weeks of the set, which sought to capitalize on Bitter Triumph as another discard resource on a shell, seeking improvements in attrition games and more comprehensive interactions with the Metagame, in addition to abusing the interaction between Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Treasure Cruise - thus, Grixis Phoenix was born.

In this article, we delve deeper into this variant and present a Sideboard guide for the current Pioneer Metagame!

Grixis Phoenix is a new variant of Pioneer's famous Tempo decks around Arclight Phoenix. Its emergence was due to the release of Bitter Triumph, which guaranteed a new resource to discard the archetype's key card efficiently while dealing with any creature or Planeswalker.

It's already recognized blue core was added with some staples, such as Thoughtseize, Fatal Push and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to establish an archetype with greater attrition capacity and more proactive and comprehensive answers to certain spells, as well as a new range of possibilities in the Sideboard.

As the Metagame evolved, Izzet Phoenix retained its position as Arclight Phoenix's best strategy in Pioneer, but the Grixis version continues to achieve some results and presents itself as a viable alternative to compete in the current format.

An interesting point about Grixis Phoenix is that, while it presents itself as a turbo xerox deck, it uses very little of the famous one-ofs that these strategies usually have in their maindeck for occasional situations. The truth is that Grixis Phoenix is very sensitive to changes made to the list, since everything works around some goals and seeks to keep its gears running at every turn.

Therefore, the only notable change to the maindeck was the addition of two copies of Duress in the slots that normally belong to Spell Pierce. As much as I consider the blue instant as one of the best answers in the format, Grixis Phoenix is too proactive in certain plays and extends the game more than its Izzet variant, making Duress a more efficient option for its proposal without giving up the minimum number of necessary cards to protect our threats.

Maindeck

Our creature package follows the basic line of what Phoenix decks usually present, just with an extra addition of one of the most powerful cards in Pioneer today.

Arclight Phoenix and Ledger Shredder are a very effective duo as a threat, discard, and hand filtering. Both can explode early in the game and Ledger Shredder is even more essential here due to the low amount of discard outlets we have in the maindeck, which also makes hinders the idea of running Thing in the Ice in its place.

Picklock Prankster replaced Pieces of the Puzzle in all variants by adding another body to the board while also functioning as a mill and top filtering.

In a list with so many cantrips and draw effects, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse becomes the definitive threat for longer games, or even a way to catch our breath after dealing with our opponent's initial aggression.

Our cantrip package only includes spells that draw cards instead of adding them to our hand to maintain interactions with Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, in addition to being castable on the opponent's turn, ensuring more efficient selection when we need it to take a reactive stance.

Treasure Cruise remains a staple of Phoenix decks and, perhaps, the central card that makes this a viable strategy in the format.

Our removal package is also very objective: while we don't have the same effectiveness in triggering Fatal Push, it still works as the best one-mana removal against small creature decks, like Boros Convoke and Abzan Amalia, as well as dealing with Smuggler's Copter.

Bitter Triumph is our answer to everything that Fatal Push doesn't handle, kills Planeswalkers, and even serves as an excellent resource for discarding Arclight Phoenix and maintaining our aggression while reducing their board.

Our interaction package.

Thoughtseize is the most efficient discard spell in the game, even 17 years after its original release. Here, it doubles its function on some occasions, as we can use it to discard a copy of Arclight Phoenix in our hand to amplify our clock.

Duress is efficient in protecting our threats from removal while increasing the number of spells cast in a single turn. It is also an answer to certain troublesome cards, such as Smuggler’s Copter, Collected Company, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, among others.

Our mana base is mostly made up of lands that offer access to the ⁣ colors, as the entire list is made up of them. However, we need some lands that generate to cast Arclight Phoenix if necessary.

However, a concession is made to accommodate this third color, at the price of using fewer utility lands in our list, with the notable absence of Hive of the Eye-Tyrant or even a second copy of Hall of Storm Giants.

Sideboard

Our sweepers.

With the rise of Abzan Amalia and the constancy of decks like Boros Convoke and Humans in the Metagame, we need ways to reset the opponent's board position when it becomes higher than ours. Path of Peril is the best way to do this against these small creature strategies.

While it is clearly worse against go-wide, Shadows’ Verdict is a bit more comprehensive, being useful even against some more value-oriented Midranges and/or Aggro.

Go Blank is a decent graveyard hate that also works to reduce the opponent's resources, being useful in against combos, control, or in the mirror.

Unmoored Ego is a necessary evil to make the game against Abzan Amalia a little fairer, removing the possibility of them comboing us off for an absurd amount of lifegain. The card can also be useful against Lotus Combo or other archetypes that require specific pieces to function.

Ray of Enfeeblement deals with several creatures from white aggressive decks while covering the need to deal with Greasefang, Okiba Boss or even holding back aggression, or killing a mana dork from Gruul Aggro and the like.

Brazen Borrower is an efficient Tempo play that doubles as a flying threat. It is not the best answer against almost anything, but it gains ground due to its flexibility.

Disdainful Stroke returns to Sideboards with the rise of Enigmatic Fires and the like, being the ideal answer to late-game bombs.

Saheeli, Sublime Artificer is an excellent way to bypass removals while forcing a go-wide plan with your spells, forcing the opponent to bypass your blockers to win the match.

Rakdos Midrange

IN

OUT

Izzet Phoenix

IN

OUT

Abzan Amalia

IN

OUT

Azorius Control

IN

OUT

Boros Convoke

IN

OUT

Lotus Combo

IN

OUT

Rakdos Sacrifice

IN

OUT

Enigmatic Fires

IN

OUT

Grixis Phoenix presents itself as a new way of approaching the Arclight Phoenix core in Pioneer, with a base more focused on attrition games, but without giving up the more explosive turns that we know from the archetype.

It is a solid option for the format today, but it is not at its best compared to the Izzet version, still prevalent in competitive events. Still, the combination of efficient cards in its lists makes it a respectable strategy in the format.

Thanks for reading!